On dioramas.

Hello!

I think you can get the best results with an approach like: I'm building a diorama showing --insert the scene here--, for this I need this, this and this object.

If you build a machine you like first, and then you try to "force it" into a diorama the risk is many things are not going to fit. There's nothing wrong showing a model standing alone. For example I have glass shelves in my display case, because I like to show my models also from the underside - where normally you don't have a chance to look. And I also like to take them out from time to time and look closer at them - so I try to detail them, too.

Hope it helps, have a nice day

Paweł

All of my 35th German armour and the majority of my 72nd aircraft are built as part of a dio. Most of my dio's are planned well in advance, and by well i mean years. I have word documents were i list which kits have dio's planend and which don't. those that don't i just what on inspiration, or maybe a piece of Am or some otyher kit that i know would go with a certain subject for a dio. I never start a build with an idea of what the dio is doing to be. Otherwise it just ends up as a model with a few figures or somthing else next to it.

Not only do i plan in advance, but i also buy in advance. There is probably over 100 kits in my stash that i could pick out now and build as the dio i want as i have everything i need for it. That way i am not haveing spend lots of cash in one go.

Sometimes I plan and other times it happens as I build. I know what you mean about space restrictions so I go for the simple and small vignette setting which doesn’t require much shelf space. 

Sometimes I mount my models on a small base with a realistic surface, sometimes with doors and acess panels open.  But I do not call it a diorama, and I seldom put figures in. I enter it in the appropriate model catagory.  I do very occasionally build a diorama, but these are more involved than just a model and base.

Frequently my choice of whether to put model on base depends on how fragile the model is.